Wallgami
Straight answers
Before you install anything, here is the unflattering half.
- The app is built and it works. Version 0.9.8. Video, images, GIFs and web wallpapers, per screen, playlists, transitions, power rules and the accessibility features are all finished and in daily use on a Mac. The Windows version has them too.
- It is tested properly. More than 1,300 automated tests across the two versions, plus dozens of checks that drive the real app and confirm what happened from outside it — sampled screen pixels, real processes, real files — rather than trusting that a function returned without complaining.
- You can download it for Mac and Windows 11. Free, and both keep themselves up to date once you say they may. The Mac version is signed with an Apple Developer ID and notarized by Apple. It is at the bottom of this page.
- The Windows installer is not code-signed. Until a code-signing certificate is sorted out, Microsoft’s SmartScreen warns about it: Edge says the file “isn’t commonly downloaded” (choose Keep, then Keep anyway), and Windows may show a blue “Windows protected your PC” box when you open it (click More info, then Run anyway). Its updates are signed with Wallgami’s own key, and the app installs nothing that key has not signed.
- It is not open source. The app is free, but its own source code is not published. The tools it includes keep their own licences; their texts ship inside both apps.
The questions people ask
Will it run on my computer?
On a Mac it needs macOS 14 Sonoma or newer, on a Mac with Apple silicon (M1 or later). Not an Intel Mac, for now.
On Windows it needs Windows 11, build 26100 or newer (24H2 / 25H2), 64-bit. Not Windows 10, and not the 32-bit version. That is not laziness: from that build onwards Windows changed how the desktop is drawn, and the old way of putting a wallpaper behind the icons now quietly succeeds while putting nothing on screen. Wallgami was written for the new way.
Why not sell it on Steam, like Wallpaper Engine?
Because needing a games client installed and signed in to see your own wallpaper is one of the things this app is trying not to do. And it is free, so there is nothing for a store to sell.
Is there a Mac or phone version?
There is a Mac version, and a Windows 11 one. There is no phone version, and none is planned.
Does it update itself?
Yes, on both. It asks before it ever checks, and before it installs anything, and it installs only an update signed with Wallgami’s own key — a file that merely claims to be an update is refused. On a Mac, updates are small when only the app has changed — a few hundred kilobytes; if you are several versions behind, it downloads the whole app again. On Windows, each update is the whole installer, about 110 MB.
Can I make my own scenes, like Wallpaper Engine's editor?
No. That editor is years of work and it is genuinely good; competing with it would mean doing everything else badly. Wallgami plays what you already have, and fetches what you link to.
What happens when I close the window?
Your wallpaper keeps playing. On a Mac, Wallgami stays in the menu bar; on Windows, the part that draws it is a separate, smaller program in the system tray. Either way, closing the window costs you nothing. On Windows, if Explorer crashes and restarts, the wallpaper comes back by itself in about a second.
How big is it?
On a Mac, a 108 MB download and about 214 MB once installed. That is larger than it looks like it should be. Most of it is the bundled tools for importing videos by link, making ping-pong loops and enlarging pictures, and everything needed to run without making you install anything else first. On Windows, a 110 MB download and about 300 MB once installed, for the same reasons; it installs for you alone and never asks for administrator rights.
Get Wallgami
Free, for Mac and Windows 11.
- Find Wallgami in your Downloads. Safari unzips it for you; otherwise, double-click the zip.
- Drag Wallgami into Applications. On an account that is not an administrator, macOS asks for an administrator’s password here.
- Open it. macOS asks once whether to open an app downloaded from the internet. Wallgami is signed with an Apple Developer ID and notarized by Apple, so there is no warning to get past.
- Edge may say the file “isn’t commonly downloaded”, because it is new and not code-signed yet. Click … beside it and choose Keep; when Edge asks again, open the arrow beside Delete and choose Keep anyway.
- Open the installer from your Downloads. It installs for you alone, so it does not ask for an administrator. If Windows shows a blue “Windows protected your PC” box, click More info, then Run anyway.
- Click through the installer. It can also fetch the optional AI upscaler (about 43 MB) and start Wallgami with Windows; both are yours to untick.